You and your friend Mike can’t agree which block was better—Scars of Mirrodin or Innistrad? You love the metal plane and its artifacts while Mike has a soft spot for bloodsucking fiends. You decide to pit your Block Constructed decks against one another to determine once and for all which block is best.

You’re at 6 life with two Swamps, two Forests, and a Mountain untapped. You control Glissa, the Traitor, an unattached Mortarpod, a Rage Extractor, a Shrine of Boundless Growth, a Shrine of Burning Rage, and a Throne of Geth. Your graveyard contains Perilous Myr, Phyrexian Metamorph, Sylvok Lifestaff, and Vulshok Replica.

Mike is at an even-more-precarious 4 life. He controls Falkenrath Noble, Soulcage Fiend, three Swamps, and one Mountain, all tapped. His only untapped permanent is a Markov Patrician.

Challenge

It is your first main phase. Win this turn.

Send your solutions to nex342+puzzle at gmail dot com with the subject line “Puzzle – Block Battle”, and I’ll include the best ones in next week’s article along with the next puzzle!

Good luck!

Special thanks to Liz Cady for creating the board-state image for this puzzle.

Solutions to Last Week’s Puzzle

Selesnya and Azorius were the fastest guilds, winning the game turn three on the play. Bill Cheng sent in the first solution for Selesnya:

Play	Mana	Cards in Hand
Turn one		7
Temple Garden, untapped		6
Dryad Militant		5
Turn two		6
Plains		5
Ethereal Armor targeting Dryad Militant		4
Ethereal Armor targeting Dryad Militant		3
Attack for 6		3
Turn four		4
Plains		3
Ethereal Armor targeting Dryad Militant		2
Ethereal Armor targeting Dryad Militant		1
Mana Bloom with X set to 0		0
Attack for 27		0

Ryan Nightingale’s solution for Azorius is the same except it omits Mana Bloom and uses Judge's Familiar rather than Dryad Militant.

Ramsey Stephan sent in this solution for Golgari, winning turn four on the play:

Play	Mana	Cards in Hand
Turn one		7
Overgrown Tomb, untapped		6
Deathrite Shaman		5
Turn two		6
Overgrown Tomb, untapped		5
Lotleth Troll		4
Attack for 1		4
Turn three		5
Overgrown Tomb, untapped		4
Wild Beastmaster		3
Discard three Slitherheads to Lotleth Troll		0
Attack for 5		0
Turn four		1
Discard Slitherhead to Lotleth Troll		0
Scavenge all four Slitherheads onto Wild Beastmaster		0
Attack for 22		0

Matt Kersus sent in this solution for Rakdos that also won on turn four on the play:

Play	Mana	Cards in Hand
Turn one		7
Blood Crypt, untapped		6
Rakdos Cackler, unleashed		5
Turn two		6
Swamp		5
Rakdos Cackler × 2, both unleashed		3
Attack for 2		3
Turn three		4
Mountain		3
Attack for 6		3
Cryptborn Horror with 6 +1/+1 counters		2
Turn four		3
Attack for 12		3

Finally, Paul Schuster’s solution for Izzet also won on turn four on the play:

Play	Mana	Cards in Hand
Turn one		7
Mountain		6
Blistercoil Weird		5
Turn two		6
Mountain		5
Blistercoil Weird × 2		3
Attack for 1		3
Turn three		4
Mountain		3
Dynacharge × 3 targeting a Blistercoil Weird		0
Attack for 18		0
Turn four		1
Attack for 3		1